Or perhaps we shouldn’t perpetuate negative stereotypes based on geography.

Or maybe the people complaining about being stereotyped should spend less time feeling sorry for themselves and more time fixing the problems which cause real suffering to the less-privileged in their benighted backwaters.

I’m sorry Antinous, what were you saying about New England’s superiority?

]]>By: Antinous / Moderatorhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1677285
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:09:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1677285Grampa Bush moved to Massachusetts in 1923 and Pa Bush moved to Texas in 1948. Not that deep.
]]>By: Kelly Amsbryhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1677034
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:45:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1677034You say depressing, I say amusing. I guess I am guilty of being smug.
]]>By: Kelly Amsbryhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1677031
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:44:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1677031 Yep. Read the comments on the article (warning, it is a time sink) and see the immediate Adam & Even and Jesus & dinosaur arguments. They are doing a great job of validating the stereotypes.
]]>By: OtherMichaelhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1676792
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 14:52:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1676792Contrary to his popular image, the Bush clan has strong New England roots.

Funnily enough, there are remarkably few people in the North arguing for teaching creationism in schools, making it illegal to talk about being gay, denying women the right to choose what they do with their own bodies.

As a native Tennessean I always want to object to the stereotypes of Southerners, but then I look at our state legislature, sigh, and admit that even if we’re not all like that our elected officials do a great deal to keep the stereotypes alive.

On the other hand the infamous “Don’t say gay, and your guidance counselors and teachers have to out you to your parents” bill looks positively benign compared to the statements made by Tennessee’s state representative Richard Floyd about transgendered people.

]]>By: Ty_MYhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1676582
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 07:30:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1676582It’s news to me. You added some new, useful info too.
If only you didn’t include the first sentence of your comment. Now, you’re *that* guy..
]]>By: Paul T Carneyhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1676443
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 01:58:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1676443So there’s no racism or backwards thinking or regressive thinking in New England or the Northeast? Please.
How about Klan marches in Maine and Massachusetts in the ’20s, or the Tea Party and Militia movements now?
Or check out the SPLC’s hate group map . . . top numbers? California, Texas, Georgia and New Jersey.
Again, I’m not pretending that the South hasn’t had its problems, but to pretend that that is where ALL of our problems reside, or to deride ALL Southerners as somehow second class . . . not cool and indicative of your own bigotry.
]]>By: Antinous / Moderatorhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1676420
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 01:25:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1676420

I was raised in the South, within the Southern Baptist Church, with relatives who were in the Klan.

And those of us who grew up in New England weren’t. You’ve proven your own point.

]]>By: Preston Sturgeshttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1676409
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 01:19:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1676409My mom was on the board of a couple of churches, so she was surprised when they retired to the south and heard about “the Rapture.”

She asked me what “the Rapture” was and I told her it was regional comic book religion that is nevertheless taken seriously by people south of the Mason-Dixon and almost nobody in the north.

]]>By: Preston Sturgeshttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1676395
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 01:02:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1676395Not really sure why this is news. Much of the Gulf Of Mexico was dry land during the ice ages, with forests, river channels, and fresh water springs. Certain Gulf coast beaches are stained dark by ancient peat and wood, and the teeth of extinct grazing animals wash up.
]]>By: Paul T Carneyhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1676387
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 00:51:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1676387I’m sorry Antinous, but I’m calling asshole here. You’re being a real jerk and perpetuating stereotypes that, while having a basis in reality, are far from the whole truth.
Condemning a whole group for the behavior of smaller sub-groups within them? Not so enlightened.
I was raised in the South, within the Southern Baptist Church, with relatives who were in the Klan. I also had remarkable worldly relations and friends who were freethinkers, atheists, and civil rights activists.
How about during the Bush administration when we became the “laughing stock of the developed world”? Did you single-handedly change that overnight? Nope. But you’re vastly superior to all of “the South” because the good, intelligent and fair people who live there haven’t been able to change things as fast as you like and in the manner that you’d like.
Oh, and I would remind you that arguments for creation, against LGBT rights, and against reproductive freedom are NOT restricted to the South . . . unless Wisconsin, Indiana and Kansas (just to name a few) are now Southern.
]]>By: Antinous / Moderatorhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1676364
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 00:18:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1676364

Neither Alabama, nor the South in have any sort of ‘corner of the market’ when it comes to human stupidity,there are plenty of ‘slack-jawed yokels’ in all the ‘Yankee’ states as well.

Funnily enough, there are remarkably few people in the North arguing for teaching creationism in schools, making it illegal to talk about being gay, denying women the right to choose what they do with their own bodies. You don’t want to be the laughing stock of the developed world? Fix your shit.

]]>By: Gordon Klockhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1676342
Mon, 11 Mar 2013 23:40:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1676342Neither Alabama, nor the South in have any sort of ‘corner of the market’ when it comes to human stupidity,there are plenty of ‘slack-jawed yokels’ in all the ‘Yankee’ states as well.(I think the majority of the entire country is painfully retarded & the rest of the world knows it.)
I apologise if I show a lack of humor,I just thought it needed to be said…
]]>By: Antinous / Moderatorhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1676330
Mon, 11 Mar 2013 23:24:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1676330If Alabamans don’t want to be the butt of jokes, maybe they should stop acting like punchlines. Butthurt, butthurt punchlines.
]]>By: justaddh3ohttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1676308
Mon, 11 Mar 2013 22:54:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1676308About as predictable as boingboing comments about how backwards Alabama is…how trite
]]>By: dmaburyhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1676247
Mon, 11 Mar 2013 21:42:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1676247I have family in Alabama and they’re good people, but holy crap. The AL.com comment thread on that article is depressing and completely predictable.
]]>By: Saltinehttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1676230
Mon, 11 Mar 2013 21:20:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1676230An easy laugh for the cheap seats. Since I recently had the misfortune to move to Alabama (from my home state of Tennessee), let me just note one counter-example to the ever-present idea that Southerners are only fit to bang bibles: E.O. Wilson graduated from the University of Alabama. Since I’m procrastinating, I’ll throw in one more datum suggesting we’re not all slack-jawed yokels down here: http://apps.cadc.auburn.edu/rural-studio/Default.aspx
]]>By: Geoff Glavehttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1676200
Mon, 11 Mar 2013 20:52:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1676200Just south of the coast are 50,000 year-old-trees. Just north of the coast are people who believe the earth is only 6000 years old.
]]>By: JonShttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1676095
Mon, 11 Mar 2013 19:07:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1676095There is a lake in NZ, Lake Waikaremoana, that was formed *mumble* thousand years ago when a landslide blocked off river valley. Because this wasn’t a traumatic event (like a massive earthquake or volcanic eruption) the forest of fully grown and healthy trees in the area slowly submerged under the rising water.

The trees are still there. And it is very spooky odd to kayak over them, or stand on the ridge above and look down through the water at them.

]]>By: noviumhttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/11/ancient-forest-off-the-coast-o.html#comment-1676076
Mon, 11 Mar 2013 18:46:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=217995#comment-1676076Man, that’s so cool it almost makes up for the extreme case of the heebie jeebies the RATter article left me with.
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